Quantitative analysis of cerebellar morphology in monotreme, metatherian and eutherian mammals

Abstract

To superficial inspection, the mammalian cerebellum appears to be a stereotypical structure that varies little in morphology across mammals. In the present study, the volumes of components of the corpus cerebelli, foliation of the cerebellar cortex and the volumes of the pontine and deep cerebellar nuclei have been measured and compared in three species of monotreme, 90 species of marsupial and 57 species of eutherian mammal. In all three mammalian groups, the volume of the corpus cerebelli scales isometrically with brain volume, and pontine nuclear volume also scales isometrically with cerebellar volume. The ratio of hemisphere to vermal cerebellar cortex is comparable in all mammals at small cerebellar volume, but elaboration of cerebellar hemispheres is largely confined to large cerebella of eutherian mammals. At small cerebellar volumes, diprotodontid metatherians have proportionally large cerebellar hemispheres compared to non-diprotodontid metatherians, and metatherian cerebella in general have a high volume of central white matter for a given cerebellar cortex volume compared to eutherians. The degree of foliation of the cerebellum scales similarly in therian mammals, but is relatively low in the monotremes for the volume of their corpus cerebelli. Among metatherians, cerebellar foliation is stronger among diprotodontid as compared to non-diprotodontids. Although the cerebellum has a similar structure in all mammals, there are subtle differences in structure between different mammal groups with possible functional implications.

Keywords: dasyurid; echidna; marsupial; placental; platypus.